Paper Trail
Printed on a thin strip of paper cut from a newspaper page and tucked behind the mat of Oliver Gardner’s portrait are poignant details of his Civil War service. He
Category: Most Hallowed Ground
Murdered While Chasing Geronimo
By Perry M. Frohne Long before Emmet Crawford met his death in the West, he proved himself a man of action. As a 16-year-old in May 1861, he lied about
Camp Douglas to Cold Harbor
First Sergeant B. Fayette Green and his pards in the 126th New York Infantry got off to a rocky start in the summer of 1862. The newly formed regiment mustered
Team Frailey on the Quaker City
Leonard August Frailey’s first gig as a naval officer was a plum assignment. In August 1864, authorities dispatched the newly minted acting assistant paymaster to the sidewheel steamer Quaker City.
Wounded in the Peach Orchard
By Carolyn B. Ivanoff, with images from the Captain Wilson French Collection It is fair to state the zenith of Maj. William H. Hugo’s military career occurred at Gettysburg. In
The Mnemonical Anatomy Professor
Tall, slow-speaking William Henry Gobrecht looked every inch the soldier and might easily be confused for a general. His commanding bearing came not from battlefield glory, but lecture halls where
“I am an American and a Union Man”
Career navy officer Richard Worsam Meade was an irascible man. This quirk in his personality may have been hereditary; his uncle famously exhibited the same trait—Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
Gum Blankets and Ammunition Boxes at Bermuda Hundred
An unnamed aide to a Union general observed the favorable position occupied by federals along one section of the front line at Bermuda Hundred, Va., on May 18, 1864. At
Survivor of Vermont’s Deadliest Day
The deadliest day in Vermont history, May 5, 1864, lives in infamy. Hundreds of miles south of the Green Mountain State, in the rough and tumble landscape of The Wilderness
Brutal Assault
John William Fenton brutally assaulted Tony Fisher inside a New Bern, N.C., saloon owned by Fisher, a free black man, on Dec, 15, 1864. According to witnesses, Fenton, a captain